Villarreal, with hard work, beat a dogged Sevilla side at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán
An impressive win. Villarreal beat Sevilla (1-2) in an intense game where the Yellows’ hard work and impressive performance saw them come away from the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán with three points and their 300th win in the top flight of Spanish football. The Submarine’s goals came from Raúl Albiol and Karl Toko Ekambi, while the home side’s came from Munir.
At the Sánchez-Pizjuán, Javi Calleja lined up with the same 11 players who started against Atlético Madrid. With Santi Cazorla once more out through injury, the midfield was made up again of Vicente Iborra, Manu Trigueros, André-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Moi Gómez.
Villarreal started excellently in Seville. With great precision, the Yellows, who made the Andalusian side run around, enjoyed the first few chances of the game.
In the seventh minute, a great piece of individual play from Gerard Moreno saw the Yellows’ first chance. The Catalan striker had dropped deep to get the ball, got away from his marker with an excellent turn, and after driving forward, launched a dangerous shot from the edge of the area which went just over.
Villarreal had already warned Sevilla of their danger, and with their second chance of the game, opened the scoring at the Sánchez-Pizjuan. Trigueros’ corner was headed on at the near post by Mario Gaspar, and Albiol helped it into the back of the net with a header.
The Submarine’s goal woke up the home side and the match became a real end-to-end affair. With the first quarter-of-an-hour gone, Gómez nearly doubled Villarreal’s lead with a placed shot from the edge of the area, which was centimetres away from going into the top corner.
Straight after, Sevilla responded. From the edge of the box, Éver Banega tried unsuccessfully to catch out Sergio Asenjo with a powerful shot that went to the near post.
With half an hour gone, Sevilla were pushing forwards and forced the Submarine to dig in defensively to stay ahead on the scoreboard. With hard work and impressive performances defensively, the Yellows were able to repel the home side. At half-time, Calleja’s side went in a goal up.
Sevilla came out all guns blazing in the second half. In the 51st minute, Sergio Reguilón nearly equalised with a shot across the goal from a corner. The Yellows responded four minutes later with Gerard being denied by Tomáš Vaclík after being sent through on goal by a Samu Chukwueze pass.
With around an hour gone, the Andalusian side equalised. Munir beat Asenjo with a bullet of a shot, after a Reguilón assist. With the score at 1-1, the home team, with the support of their public, had the Yellows against the ropes, but Calleja’s side knew how to dig in and keep out the waves of pressure from Sevilla.
The payoff for the good defensive work came in the 73rd minute, when Villarreal once more went ahead, after a brilliant piece of play. Karl Toko Ekambi scored calmly, after a fantastic lay-off from Trigueros, who got on the end of a great Gómez pass.
With nearly 20 minutes left, the Submarine continued defending with all they had, and held on to an excellent result to come away from the Sánchez-Pizjuán with a 1-2 win and take the three points away from Sevilla’s coliseum.
Lineups:
Sevilla FC: Vaclik; Jesús Navas, Diego Carlos, Carriço, Reguilón; Fernando, Vázquez, Banega (Dabbour, m. 77), Óliver (Joan Jordán, m. 77); Munir, De Jong (Chicharito, m. 58).
Villarreal CF: S. Asenjo; Mario Gaspar, R. Albiol, Pau, Quintillà; Iborra, Anguissa, Trigueros (Funes Mori, m. 88), Moi Gómez; Chukwueze (Toko Ekambi, m. 65), Gerard (R. Peña, m. 77).
Goals: 0-1. Min. 12: R. Albiol. 1-1. Min. 61: Munir. 1-2. Min. 73: Toko Ekambi.
Referee: Cordero Vega. Booked: Óliver Torres, Diego Carlos (Sevilla FC).
Matchday information: Match between Sevilla FC and Villarreal CF corresponding to LaLiga Matchday 17 of the 2019/20 season at the Estadio Sánchez-Pizjuan in front of 36,521 spectators.
